Cassie felt panic rising inside her, so sharp and sudden it seemed to choke her.
She hurried to the edge of the cliff.
Once there, she forced herself to take a moment to collect her thoughts and make sure she was on steady footing. If the steep drop triggered another flashback to the horrors she’d seen while in France, there would be nobody to help her.
Carefully, she peered over.
Far below, on the rocks, she saw a flash of pink.
Looking more closely, she confirmed, to her horror, that it was the other shoe.
“Madison!” she screamed, so loud that Dylan’s head jerked up from his messaging in alarm.
“Madison, where are you?”
She felt a rush of panic and staggered back from the dizzying drop.
“Dylan, she’s down there. I can see her shoe. She must have fallen.”
Cassie clapped her hands over her mouth to smother her sobs. Self-recrimination crushed her. She’d been so preoccupied that she hadn’t thought to check on the children. She’d been neglectful and irresponsible, focusing on less important matters instead of properly caring for the children, and in one terrible moment a catastrophe had occurred.
Had Madison fallen? Had the two of them fought and Dylan pushed her? Had she been trying to do gymnastics, or acrobatics, too close to the edge?
She felt sick with guilt as she wondered whether she could have prevented the accident if she’d bothered to check on them earlier.
“How do we get down there?”
Cassie shouted the question in a high, shrill voice, frantically considering what emergency action she should take and what the likelihood would be of surviving such a fall. The rocks looked lethally sharp, and Madison must have been washed out to sea, because there was no sign of her apart from the terrible sight of that one lonely shoe.
In a flash, Cassie realized that the fragile sense of security she’d achieved with this family was only a flimsy veneer covering the deep wounds that festered inside her. Now that veneer had been ripped away and exposed her for what she really was.
How could she ever have thought she was suitable to look after children? She was incompetent, unreliable, and the baggage she carried with her was going to prevent her from ever making a success of her life.
“Dylan, quick. Pass me your phone. What’s the emergency services number?”
As Cassie spoke, Dylan started to laugh.
For a moment she stared at him, shocked beyond words at his reaction.
Then she followed his gaze to see Madison emerging from the garage side door, holding wads of crumpled up newspaper in her hands.
She walked a few steps away from the door and then stared down at the grass, frowning.
“Where have my shoes gone?” she asked.
For a moment, Cassie couldn’t speak. A storm of emotion was raging in her head.
Then she managed to get the words out.
“Dylan, what happened here?” Her voice was still hoarse with tension, but she hoped it was loud enough to be authoritative.
“I moved your shoes. One of them fell off the edge,” Dylan said to Madison.
“What? Over the cliff? Dylan, those are my favorite trainers! Go fetch it, now.”
“He can’t—” Cassie began, but Dylan interrupted.
“It’s on the rocks. The tide’s on the way out. I’ll walk there in half an hour.” He looked at Cassie. “There’s a path that goes down.”
“Why did you do that?” Madison still sounded angry. “I washed them because they were muddy after the run. I brought the newspaper to put inside so they would dry, like Dad taught us to do. And now you moved them and the one will be all dirty again.”
“I thought it would be a game. I didn’t mean for it to fall over.”
Cassie cleared her throat.
“Madison could have fallen while fetching the shoe. You could even have slipped off the edge while putting it there. Dylan, that was a nasty thing to do.”
He stared at her calmly.
“Neither of us have vertigo,” he said.
The word hit Cassie like a slap in the face. It dragged her straight back to the moment when she’d looked over the balcony with Ryan.
Dylan knew what had happened. The way he’d said it told her so. He must have been passing by the family room at the time and seen them outside. Now he was using the word intentionally to show her that he knew, and this put a different spin on his behavior.
Cassie suspected that this was some sort of revenge move.
Dylan was getting Madison, or herself, or both of them, back for something, and she was sure it was because of what had taken place in town. They had criticized him, accused him of theft. He hadn’t shown much emotion at the time but their words must have stung, and now he was retaliating.
Fury surged inside her and she knew was about to lose it. She was going to scream at him, let rip with the most vicious, hurtful things she could think of, to try and break through his nonchalant shell and force him to feel the same pain she was feeling now.
She almost did it, she almost couldn’t stop herself, and she saw from his wary expression that he was expecting it.
At the very last moment, she paused.
Was she screaming because she felt angry at him? Or was she angry at herself, for having been so wrapped up in what she was doing that she hadn’t checked on the children?
It would be unfair to make Dylan the target when she was the one to blame.
Dylan’s behavior was troubling, and a little scary, but it hadn’t been malicious. It had been a mean joke, that was all; his way of showing her how clever he was, and how sensitive, too.
She remembered his words, defensive and ever so slightly threatening.
“You’re with me or you’re against me.”
Instead of shouting, she kept her voice calm as she spoke.
“It’s no problem, Dylan. I’ll walk down the path with you as soon as the tide’s far enough
